In my last blog I discussed the use of “Why and why now?” as Secret Question #1 along with the effective strategy, “Before we begin…”

Everything that I share with you, as in the past, will be what I have used myself and as a result had a positive outcome.

In this week’s blog I will share with you:

A - The benefits of the Secret Strategy #2 and Question #2.

B - The Strategy and the Question.

C - An explanation of how use to them.

D - How I closed a $40,000.00 deal.

A - You will benefit from this week’s Secret Strategy and Question five ways. You will:

ü  Stay in control of your sales process.

ü  Better qualify or disqualify the quote opportunity at hand.

ü  Make a decision to quote or not quote.

ü  Position yourself to sell value not just price.

ü  Understand what will happen after you submit your quotation.

B - The Secret Strategy is: “Let’s jump ahead…”  The Secret Question is: “What would our conversation be?”

For the purpose of this blog we will assume you have been invited to quote on a piece of business. Early in the meeting—when you used the “Before we begin…” strategy and “Why and why now?” question—you discovered the prospect had a compelling reason to want your product or services. We will also assume you did a great job of qualifying the opportunity and made a decision to quote.

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could peek into the future and find out what the prospect would do after you:

ü  Went back to your office and prepared your quote.

ü  Hand delivered the quote at an appointment you set before you left your first meeting.

ü  Were able to review the compelling reason to do business with the prospect.

ü  Illustrated how your proposal was exactly what the doctor would order to satisfy all of the prospect’s needs.    

ü  Worked within the prospects dollar allocation for the project.

WELL YOU CAN ACCOMPLISH ALL OF THIS BY USING “Let’s jump ahead…” and the Secret Question is “What would our conversation be?”

C - At the point in the conversation when you are discussing quoting and you have agreed to quote that is when you would use “Let’s jump ahead…” and “What would our conversation be?”

Example:

“Let’s jump ahead to our second meeting:  what would our conversation be after I come back to meet with you with an outline of how I will address your compelling reasons to select us and how I am able to do it within your financial requirements?”

The prospect could give you a number of responses such as:

ü  “I would compare your quote with the other quotes I received and then make a decision.”

ü  “I would move forward.”

The important point here is you would have flushed out the future before you prepared the quote and could then decide on your next course of action.

Note: There are many ways we could move forward that are too numerous to mention in one blog. Additional training will be offered in future webinars which you can elect to join that will be focused on qualifying prospects better and closing more business.

D - I want to share real life examples of how I used this strategy and question to close a $40,000.00 deal.

I was invited to quote training for a bank’s branch managers. The bank had three quotes from other training groups and was looking for one more quote.

When I used the Secret Strategy and Question “Let’s jump ahead…” and “What would our conversation be?”

 I was told they would compare all four approaches to training and the associated fees. I was also told they had been reviewing three quotes and needed to move forward. There was a company they were  leaning toward.

As I assessed the situation:  It sounded like there was a 25% chance or less of me getting the business and if I wanted the business and wanted to deliver a value proposition I needed to change the odds in my favor. As scary as it may sound this is what I did:

I suggested that the bank not use me to quote since they had already reviewed three quotes, were in a rush to move forward and apparently had a favorite.

I then suggested that I review the quotes for them and make a recommendation of whom I would use if I were the bank. In return, if there was an opportunity in the future, I would hope they would consider me. They agreed and I analyzed all three quotations.

In all fairness the competition all had made valid suggestions, but each had left some important training components out of their proposals. When I pointed out the short comings I was asked what I would do.

I showed how I could combine something from each of the three proposals,  add my own training modules and have a complete training package that would satisfy the needs of the bank.

After I made my suggestion I was asked if I would do the training which resulted in a $40,000.00 contract.

I used a strategy and a question which resulted in a $40,000.00 success. I also know if I did not use the strategy and question I would have bid and lost.

We all get requests to quote and send out information. What you will read here can improve your sales process and your ability to better qualify a business opportunity.

There are a few secret questions and strategies I have used in the sales process that have proven to be very powerful. I will give you one question and one strategy at a time so you can get comfortable using them and then be better prepared for next week’s question and strategy.This question has opened the door to incredible amounts of valuable information I might never have gathered if I had not used this secret question and strategy.

After I give it to you please don’t dismiss it or just log off. I will give you very specific ways I used the question and strategy—and how it helped me. I will also give you some samples to work with this week.

Here we go…..

Question #1: “Why and why now?”

Strategy #1: “Before we begin…”

This question and strategy on the surface may seem bizarre or over simplified. You may say I know why they are contacting me; I am with my prospect, the sales process has already begun, why should I say “before we begin…”? They have a need, they want to buy, etc., and you may be correct. Read on.

As a child do you remember saying, “It wasn’t me; it isn’t my fault; I didn’t do it!”  I believe it is universal to say we have all used those statements. It indicates from childhood there was a little bit of a sales person in all of us. And we believe the presentation hopefully will make the difference.

Well, if the truth is to be told, the best sales people are the sales people that know how to position themselves. They know how to ask the powerful and sometimes difficult questions at the right time, even when there are risks.

When you ask the question “Why and why now?” you are tapping into the heart of the motivation of the individual and the reason they are doing what they do. You will learn information you would never have believed you would hear.

I was interviewing a potential vice president of sales.  At the beginning of the interview I asked the candidate if could ask him some questions about his resume. He gave me permission and then I turned his resume over on the conference table and said, “Before we begin, I am curious why are you in the job market and why now?” I learned so much about the individual he actually disqualified himself. The candidate told me he planned on being in New Jersey for a year or so to help his sister. He then planned to move back to his home in California at the end of that period but needed an income while in New Jersey. My client was looking for someone that would stay with the company for a longer length of time.

In the candidate’s mind we weren’t starting yet so the information I was given didn’t count. The candidate also had a need to justify his actions to me.

On another occasion I was contacted by a very large banking institution in New York City. They had asked if I could provide them with my training philosophy and some training outlines for them to review. They also told me they had over 500 hundred branch people they wanted to train. I was impressed that they would contact me and did my best not to get emotionally involved. I later learned that their statement about the 500 people to train was just bait for me to bite on.

I asked the Secret Question and used the secret strategy.

Here is what I said, “Before we begin, I am just wondering why would you be contacting me about my training philosophy and training materials and why now?”

I was told each year they contact training organizations to keep up to date on any new training trends and read one of my articles. They were interested in my training programs.

I was also told: “We will take a look at what you send us and if we see value in it we then design our own programs and deliver them to our organization through our human resource department.”

I said a very polite, “Thank you for calling me, but I am not interested in participating.”

The person I was having the conversation with heard, “Before we begin…” and in her mind the information she was sharing didn’t count because we had not begun yet.

This is a very important point. How many times were you contacted, courted by prospects that seemed interested only to be left in the dust.

I am on your side. It takes guts to really qualify an opportunity. It is sometimes scary to ask tough questions because of the fear of losing something. I strongly suggest you look for ways to use this Secret Question and Strategy.

Samples to play with:

“I would be happy to provide a quote. Before we begin,

I am curious as to why you have contacted us and why now?”

“I would be happy to tell you what we do. Before we begin, I am curious why would you want our information and why now?”

This information is for you to use and it is free. If you find value in this Blog you can help me by telling your friends and colleagues and send them to my website to sign up for my Blogs.

You will help me and them. The link to my website is www.turrisiassociates.com

I  learned a client had been following up on a number of proposals he had submitted to companies in the hopes of making a sale and getting their business and having a successful day. When he followed up on the proposal he was told, “We don’t have a Budget for the project.”

As I examined the situation I asked myself why anyone would go through the effort to

• Create a request for proposals
• Send the request for proposals to a group of selected companies
• Accept the bids and the follow up calls from the bidders
• Say they did not have any budget to invest in the project that had been quoted on?

It seemed illogical someone would go through all that effort. There had to be a reason.

• To discover the reason for the request to quote and the response we first should
• Identify what could potentially motivate a company to request quotes

Understand why they say no “there isn’t any budget for the project.”

There are a limited number of motivational variables that would cause someone to behave this way and when discovered will drive the questions which would help

• Better qualify or disqualify the opportunity
• Make a decision to quote or not quote
• To quote at some future time.

Variable #1- The Company requesting the quote is putting a bigger quote together and needs your numbers to complete their quote. They may or may not get the business. You need to know who they are competing with and how many times they won over the competition.

Variable #2- The company requesting your quote sees a need for your services and is considering doing the work themselves and doesn’t know the costs involved or how to do the job so they need your number and your expertise. Your quote is teaching “the needs to be done and the how to do it.”

Variable # 3- The Company requesting the quote has the job and is comparing your price against someone else’s quote. To make sure they have the best way to do the job and the related fees.

Variable # 4- The Company requesting the quote won the job, has your competitor ready to do the work and they are using you to get the incumbent to drop their price.

Variable #5- They are requesting your quote because they need a life and have nothing better to do but to spend time, money on resources on work they don’t do, don’t have and have no interest in doing but need some excitement in their lives. (NOT A LIKELY VARIABLE BUT IT MAKES THE POINT THERE IS ALWAYS A REASON WHY PEOPLE DO WHAT THEY DO AND YOU NEED TO FIND OUT WHAT THAT IS)

If you want to quote less and close more business you will:

• Have to be very clear about your ideal business opportunity.
• Make a list of the criteria that would make it ideal. Sort your criteria into sections A- cold, B- Warm, C-Hot
• Construct a series of questions you would ask the suspect
• Determine if their opportunity falls into what you are looking for
• Based on what you learn label your suspect cold, warm or hot Move forward or abort if it is not what you are looking for

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